Francesca Matthys is a South African Interdisciplinary Dance Artist & Performer, Writer, Researcher, Dance Educator, and Kundalini Yoga Teacher based in London. Her practice and artistic work are rooted in connections to ancestral wisdoms through movement, text and storytelling, inclusivity, collaboration, and community.

Francesca holds a BA specialising in Physical Theatre, Directing, and Playwriting from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (SA), as well as an MA in Creative Practice: Dance from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London (UK).

Her movement practice, Stepping in Situ (SIS), is an improvisational and choreographic storytelling process that explores connections and disconnections to ancestral wisdom, intuition, and identity; particularly through the lens of the pelvis and rhythmic feet. Rooted in aspects of her cultural heritage as a descendant of the indigenous Khoi and San people of Southern Africa, SIS engages in dialogue with the Nama Stap Dance, a rite of passage ritual integral to her lineage.

Francesca has been part of collaborations supported by The British Council and Arts Council England, and has worked with a wide range of organisations and artists including Mamela Nyamza, The Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative, Drama for Life, JOMBA, Theatre Rites, Agudo Dance, Toussaint To Move, Dance Umbrella SA/UK, Independent Dance, Dance Art Journal, South East Dance, Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg, Serendipity Institute for Black Arts & Heritage, London Performance Studios, The Baked Bean Charity, Sadler’s Wells, Case de Cultura SoMoviemento (Brazil), and The Place.

Through her interdisciplinary work, Francesca continues to explore how embodied storytelling and collective creative practices can serve as pathways to healing, remembrance, and transformation.